Therapists for Equitable Pay

Therapists for Equitable Pay is a group of therapists who are tired of insurance companies having all the power to dictate our rates. We want a say in how we’re paid for our hard work, years of study and experience, and passionate dedication to our patients.

Currently, anti-trust laws prohibit us from joining with other therapists to bargain collectively with insurance companies, which is the only proven way to raise pay in a capitalist system. We’re not even allowed to discuss our rates with one another! As a result, insurance companies can tell us that we’re getting paid a “standard” rate for therapists in our area, and we have no legal way to see if that’s even true.

Wages in our field are lower than in any other field with comparable requirements. With a therapist shortage contributing to an ongoing and exacerbating mental health crisis, we knew we had to act.

Over the past year, the organizers of TEP have researched options to address this systemic issue. We’ve looked into starting a business that would charge therapists money to bargain with insurance companies on their behalf. We have also considered forming a nonprofit that could raise funds to pay professionals to do that bargaining on behalf of therapists for free. Ultimately, we have decided that TEP could have the greatest impact by offering a hybrid. Charging therapists that can afford help now while eventually pooling funds to help other therapists that cannot afford the service. When the problem is low therapist pay, the solution has to be accessible to underpaid therapists.

In order for our vision of financially accessible advocacy for therapists to become a reality, we need your support. We’ve sought legal advice about how to pursue 501(c)3 status and have been advised to employ a lawyer to handle the process so that it is done correctly. We’re all busy professionals with our own practices and lives. We asked for volunteers to help with this process, but everyone is pretty overwhelmed these days.

The best solution is to pay an attorney to prepare the 501(c)3 paperwork, which includes filing with the Secretary of State, obtaining an EIN, help with creating by-laws, completion of the 1033 IRS form, and application forms for tax exempt status. The attorney with experience and expertise in this area has quoted us a rate of $365/hour and an estimate of $3500-5000 total for the process.

We’re asking for your support to create this service, which will benefit our whole community. When therapists are empowered through advocacy to receive fair pay, patients get the help they need. Therapists for Equitable Pay empowers therapists for success through education, networking, and advocacy. We need your help to serve you.

Please donate. All funds will be used to pay for the setup of our organization. We will maintain transparency by providing updates when we receive and pay invoices for work on this project.

Jeff Fine-Thomas, MA, MA, LMFT

Elizabeth Fletcher, LCSW

Jessical Stoops, MA, LPC

Sara Whitehead, LCSW